Private hire loophole sees luxury cars escape daily fee
An investigation by Clean Green Cars claims to show that a large number of expensive luxury cars are being registered as private hire vehicles in London to avoid paying the daily congestion charge. Fare dodgers: Private hire cars are exempt from the charge.
By paying an £82 application fee and £27 per year licence, owners can avoid paying the £8 per day Congestion Charge ? which is planned to rise to £25 per day for the highest polluting vehicles in 2008.
The investigation found 31 Bentleys,18 BMW X5s, 52 Range Rovers, and eight Rolls- Royce Phantoms, among others, registered as private hire vehicles.
"Stop exemptions for minicabs"
Jay Nagley, publisher of Clean Green Cars, said it was absurd that a private hire vehicle with a V12 engine does not pay the congestion charge when a family doing the school run with a Renault Espace 2.0T Auto is liable for the full £25 fee. "The logical move would be to stop exemptions for any minicabs that fall into Band G ? that way no-one would have an incentive to register their luxury car as a minicab.?
A Transport for London spokesman said there could be an investigation in to the report. ?If information were brought to light to suggest abuse of the system, Transport for London and the Public Carriage Office would investigate this fully."
Lunchtime London TV showed photos the happy taxi boys had taken which included an old builders pick up( but it did have a cover on the back..
Not very happy bunnies ;-)
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Apparently there is a a murcealago, countless porkies, several aston martins and ferraris registered as mini cabs in london.
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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Famous one is M'oleary of Ryanair fame who's Mercedes S Class was/is registered as a Taxi so it can use the Bus lanes in Dublin. Willie Walsh (BA's Boss) who was at Aer L at the time told me how he once phoned him up to try to book him !!
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I would have thought that the use of the bus lanes would be the reason for this. If you can afford to run a Bentley in town where the mpg must be way down in single figures the congestion charge would hardly register.
Registering as a taxi £45
Fuel costs £1 per mile
Use of the bus lanes to waft silently past the stationary plebs - Priceless
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Alternatively, a more charitable view may be that some of these cars are actually being used as private hire vehicles - not minicabs but chauffeur driven limousines where the vehicle and driver actually are on private hire to CEOs, celebrities and the privately wealthy.
I'm not suggesting that all of these cars are legitimate and even if they were, there is a good argument that the full emissions cost should be passed on to the private hire customer just as with a private user, especially when 7 Series, A8s and S-Classes are all available within Band F or less.
However I'm sure that at least some of these fulfil any realistic definition of private hire and will be insured, and used appropriately.
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If private hire cars were obliged to carry a valid company telephone number prominently displayed on the vehicle in contrasting six-inch-high figures, and all private hire companies were obliged to take telephone bookings when asked on pain of deregistration, there would be no scam.
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Not sure it's a scam though. I know of chauffeur driven RRs, Aston Martins and even a Murcelago used by hotels in London and certain shops as private hire. Countless limousine services have option of flashy sports cars with driver for weddings. I also met a guy who works exclusively as a chauffeur on school run, and he uses 7 seater bullet proof glass fitted Land Rover, mothers prefer it.
I think someone overreacted, made a lot of noise about nothing but it will now give idea to others. Not that I condone circumventing loopholes anyway - stupid rules are there to be broken - if someone drew a line around my house against my will one morning to charge me £25 for dropping off kids to school or doing my shopping, I would be looking for ways to screw with their system as well. Don't go nazi on your own electorate and you won't get hit by partisans - it's simple.
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[ Anything I drive can and will be used against me ]
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Good on 'em.
The congestion charge is a scam in itself in my opinion, so anyone who successfully beats it without resorting to a hybrid gets my vote! :-)
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
Edited by DP on 05/11/2007 at 15:47
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Why do private hire cars and taxis get exemption anyway? They create congestion and pollution, just like other cars. They shouldn't be classed as public transport because they're not mass carriers. They should pay the charge and pass it on to their customers through their charges.
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The law is like a net.
Big fish (and sharks) can tear the net and get free.
It is the small fish that always get caught on the fisherman's net.
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Ken may be stupid. But he's not stupid enough to take on the black cab drivers and make them pay the Con charge!
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private hire vehicles as far as I know cannot use bus lanes.
simple way of stopping this is to, when applying for the yearly licence (the £27) is to give them out to only those that bring the required insurance certificates (ie that the vehicle can be used for private hire as well as public liability insurance or whatever is needed to run a cab).
I have a cab firm near work who all run the bog standard Merc E class but occaisionally a Maybach. I think this is let out at a rate of £1k or £1.5k an hour with a minimum hire of 3 hours.
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I recently became aware of another congestion charge scam. You catch a taxi/minicab outside the zone and the £8 is added to your fare if your journey takes you into the zone. Naturally the driver is always entering for the first time that day! Obviously there are honest drivers out there but sadly there are a few that are not!
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Speaking with a friend just now about this who tell me of a guy he knows who uses his 8 seat Land Rover as it is plated as a minibus and doesn't pay the CC either - priceless
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